


Breaking the Curse

by meyari



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Reality, Angst, Dubious Consent, M/M, Prostitution, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:38:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Martha Clark never met Jonathan Kent?  What if she'd met Lionel Luthor instead?  And what would happen if the thus differently raised Lex and Clark met later in life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking the Curse

"Yes Mom," Lex said into his cell phone as he drove down the country road to his new mansion in Smallville, "Everything's going great. The house is all set up. The plant conversion is nearly complete."

He whipped around a corner and roared out onto a bridge, his mind mostly on the phone and his step-mother Martha.

"Of course you can visit," Lex said with a wide grin. "You're always welcome."

She was, too. Martha Clark's arrival in the Luthor family shortly after Lex's real mother Lillian's death had changed Lex's life so completely that there was no comparison. She had warmed Lionel Luthor's cold heart, contained and satisfied his appetites, rescued Lex from boarding school and reconciled him to his father. She'd found out about Lucas and took him in, becoming the mother he'd never known. She was the heart of the Luthor family and all three of the Luthor men believed that she'd turned what had been a curse into a blessing.

"Your guest room is already set up," Lex said and then gasped as his wheels hit something on the bridge.

It sent him careening out of control. He had a horrified half-second to register that he was hitting a tall, dark-haired man before he hit the rail, smacking his face into the air bag. Then he was falling. The impact with the water smacked Lex's head into the windshield and he remembered no more for a while.

Lex gasped and coughed, the memory of lips on his lips wiped away as his lungs tried to expel the water he'd breathed in while submerged.

"Easy," a young man's voice said as large, warm hands supported Lex easily. "I've got you. You're safe."

"Didn't I hit you?" Lex rasped around the coughs, staring at the boy, not man, in confusion.

"If you had," he said uncomfortably, "We'd both be dead."

"I guess I owe you my life," Lex said, shivering violently as his wet clothes finally registered.

"Oh no," the boy said, blushing, "Anyone would have done it. You don't owe me anything."

A police care with sirens going screeched up. The boy looked up apprehensively. Lex frowned in spite of his chattering teeth. The police were a problem for his rescuer? He couldn't help but wonder why. His curiosity had always been his defining characteristic after his bald head.

"Is everyone all right?" the sheriff called.

"We're down here, Ethan," the boy called, face too pale.

"Huh," Ethan said, a look of disgust on his face as he peered down at them. "Should have known that you'd be in the middle of this, Kent. What did you do this time?"

"He saved my life," Lex said as firmly as he could given his shivers and chattering teeth. He wondered why Kent wasn't shivering. He was just as soaked as Lex was.

"Mr. Luthor!" Ethan said, eyes going wide. "The call we got was right. Well, I guess that even Clark Kent can do the right thing one in his life. Hang tight. I'll get some blankets for you two and call your father, Kent."

"No, that's--!" Clark groaned, his shoulders slumping as Ethan disappeared over the rail.

Lex couldn't help but wonder what sort of savior he had acquired. He still wasn't shivering, despite being soaked. Lex knew he'd hit Clark. Having had the misfortune of hitting someone before, he knew what that felt like. But Clark was fine, untouched other than some tears on his jeans where the bumper hit him. And Ethan's reaction to Clark made Lex sure that the boy had been in trouble with the law before.

"Sorry," Clark said shamefacedly as he turned back and saw Lex's intense scrutiny, "I um, got in a lot of trouble in Junior High and no one forgets anything in a small town like Smallville."

"As far as I'm concerned," Lex said, "You're my guardian angel. I wouldn't be alive without you."

The almost teary look of gratitude that Clark gave Lex made him wonder just what sort of trouble he'd gotten into and how long he was going to suffer for it. Clark's father's arrival in a battered pickup truck shortly thereafter made it clear that it must have been very bad.

"Tell me you didn't do this," Clark's father said almost desperately as he charged down the slope to Lex and Clark.

"Dad!" Clark said, humiliated.

"It's entirely my fault, Mr. Kent," Lex said. "I was going too fast and lost control of my car. I'm very fortunate that Clark was here to save my life. If he hadn't been, I'd be dead."

"You … saved him?" Mr. Kent said, apparently shocked. Clark just looked miserable as his father pulled Clark away, driving off in their battered truck.

Ethan gave Lex a ride home to the mansion. By the time Lex had been delivered to his staff, he'd gotten quite an earful of the youthful Clark Ken's troubles. He'd been arrested a dozen times in Junior High for fights and property damage. He was suspected of petty theft, assault, extortion and there was one charge of armed robbery that Ethan was morally convinced was true but hadn't been able to find proof of. To hear Ethan tell it, Clark Kent was the original bad seed.

Lex couldn't reconcile what the sheriff was telling him with the kind and almost desperately unhappy young man you had saved him. Lex was an excellent judge of character and he was sure that Clark Kent was a good person who was being misjudged.

The moment of impact and all the oddities of Clark Kent remained in his mind as he ordered a new pickup truck to be delivered to the Kent farm with his thanks. Clark was something special. That was obvious. But he also quite obviously had more than enough problems in his life without Lex making them worse by probing and investigating him. Lex would ask around, of course. His curiosity wouldn't let him do otherwise. But he intended to keep it low key so that he didn't make Clark's life any worse.

Clark was obviously a good deal more moral than his Juvenile records made out, Lex thought the next day. The truck had been returned with a polite note of thanks that refused any further rewards. Lex was studying the note as Martha arrived, face furrowed with worry.

"Lex!" Martha said, hurrying to his side. "I was so worried about you! Are you all right? I heard the crash over the phone but couldn't do anything but call the police for you."

"I'm fine, Mom," Lex said, standing up to let her hug him and check him out for herself. "Just a knock on my forehead and that's already gone."

"Thank goodness you heal so quickly," Martha said, pulling him down so that she could kiss his bald head. "Did you thank the boy who rescued you?"

"I tried," Les said with a sigh. He gave her the note and let her read it. "He returned the truck I bought him and won't take anything else."

She frowned, studying the note as if she were studying Clark himself.

"What sort of person is he?" Martha asked.

"A good kid who went wrong a while ago and is trying to do better," Lex said, completely convinced of it. "He got in a lot of trouble in Junior High with fights and the like but he hasn't had any trouble that he started for almost two years."

Martha nodded slowly.

"Invite him over for dinner," she said, smiling at Lex. "I doubt that dinner would be refused, no matter what. You can always say that your mother wants to meet her son's savior."

Lex laughed, giving her a hug.

"That would even be true, now wouldn't it?"

"Very true," Martha said smugly.

Lionel and Lucas showed up about that time, having made sure that the helicopter was shut down and their bags had been brought in. Lionel checked out Lex with worried looks and comments. Lucas immediately started making his normal snide remarks about ruining yet another car. It quickly evolved into a family reunion, then to a home cooked dinner. Lex was delighted. He hadn't been to one of Martha's warm and comforting family dinners since he went off to college and he missed them. It was nice to get his family back.

The next day, Lex drove out to the Kent farm. It was a good working farm, from the look of it. The animals looked well cared for and healthy. The fields were nearly perfect as well, with good strong crops. The barn was a bit rundown, but still solid. The house rather desperately needed paint but was otherwise very solid.

"Lex," Clark said astonished as Lex got out of his car. "Um, what are you doing here?"

"Well," Lex said, noting Mr. Kent's very stormy expression as he stomped over to where Lex and Clark were talking, "My mother is in town to make sure I'm OK. She'd very much like to meet you. Would you be willing to come over for dinner?"

"That'd be—" Clark started to say enthusiastically.

"Clark!" Mr. Ken said, his voice so disapproving that Clark flinched.

"Dad," Clark said plaintively, "It's just dinner. It'll be all right."

Mr. Kent pulled Clark away from Lex, his disapproval clear in the look on his face, the set of his shoulders and especially in the despairing expression on Clark's face. Lex wasn't sure why Clark's father was isolating him this way, but even in a day and a half of light investigation, it was a pattern that had turned up time and again. Clark had maybe two friends and wasn't allowed to participate in sports or after school activities. His life appeared to be the farm and nothing else.

Clark pleaded with his father and apparently he said the magic word because Mr. Kent flinched, sighed and fingered a battered wedding band around his left ring finger. He slowly nodded approval and Clark lit up like a Christmas tree with sheer delight.

"He said yes!" Clark said, bouncing like a puppy. "When is it?"

"Well, she's here now so I thought tonight," Lex said with a matching grin. "You might want to get cleaned up first."

"Oh," Clark said, looking at his dusty and hay covered clothes, "Yeah, I guess I should."

Clark led the way inside the farmhouse. Lex added another suspicion to his list of why Clark was so isolated. Lex wouldn't use the word 'squalid' to describe the home Clark lived in but 'bleak' came to mind. So did 'dingy', 'worn' and 'devoid of comfort'. Everything was old, faded and threadbare, from the rugs to the couch to the curtains to the paint on the walls.

The pictures on the walls showed a happier time, full of a beaming child that had to be Clark with a smiling father and approving mother. There were no new pictures after Clark turned about 6 or 7 years old.

"Um," Clark said, clearly reconsidering allowing Lex to see inside his home, "You can wait here while I change if you like. I'll just be a minute."

"That's fine," Lex said, keeping his thoughts off of his face with practiced ease. He studied a picture of Clark with his parents so that he wasn't looking at the rest of his surroundings.

"My mom Adel," Clark said quietly. He had a sad expression in his face but not one that said that he was heartbroken. "She died when I was six. She was my Dad's childhood sweetheart."

"I'm so sorry," Lex said quietly. "My mother died when I was 12 so I understand the pain of loosing a parent."

"Huh?" Clark said, confused. "I thought I was meeting your mom tonight?"

"Sorry," Lex laughed. "My father remarried about a year after my mom died. That's who you'll be meeting, my step-mother Martha. She insists we call her mom and I feel like she's as much my mother as my real mother was."

Lex shrugged, smiling slightly.

"Oh, OK," Clark said. "I'll be right back."

It took about 20 minutes for Clark to get cleaned up. Lex heard him muttering and pacing upstairs, probably considering what to wear. Lex spent the time really looking at Clark's home. It was as though nothing had changed from those happy pictures of Clark's childhood. It was the same sofa, the same curtains, the same carpets. Lex suspected that everything had been kept the same, as though Clark's mother had never left.

"So will this work?" Clark asked as he came down the stairs from the second floor.

They looked like Clark's best clothes, probably his Sunday-go-to-church clothes. Lex wondered if the shirt was a hand-me-down from his father. It didn't fit right. The hems of his pants and the cuff and collar of his shirt were slightly threadbare.

"It's perfect," Lex said approvingly. He shook his head at the tie in Clark's hand. "You don't need a tie. We're not that formal."

"Thank goodness," Clark said with relief, "I'm not sure how to put it on."

Lex drove them back to the mansion, driving his normal speed. Clark was very wide eyed but grinning when they arrived. Lex chuckled, raising an eyebrow at Clark.

"This is where you tell me that I drive too fast," Lex said, lips twitching with amusement.

"I liked it!" Clark said, grinning at Lex. "But don't tell Ethan or Dad I said that. I'd never hear the end of it."

"My lips are sealed," Lex promised.

He headed up the stairs into the mansion, pausing as Clark's steps slowed and then stopped. Lex turned back and he wanted to kick himself. Clark looked terrified. If his house was any indication, Clark had never seen a home this big or encountered such luxury before.

"It's … big," Clark said, swallowing hard as he stared up at the mansion.

"I know," Lex sighed. "My father had a fit of ego a few years ago and had it brought over from Scotland stone by stone. It sat empty after that until I decided to turn the old creamed corn factory into a bio-chem research facility. I feel like I'm living in a museum sometimes."

"Are you sure it's OK?" Clark asked, hesitating at the base of the stairs.

Lex smiled gently and came down to Clark's level laying a hand on his arm. Clark jumped, so wide-eyed and nervous that he reminded Lex of a colt about to be broken.

"Clark," Lex said, "This is my house. I bought it from my father so it's mine to do with as I wish. And right now what I wish is to treat you to dinner and to let my Mom hug the stuffing out of you for saving my life."

Clark burst out laughing, the first real smile Lex had seen on his face blooming. It transformed him from a nervous boy into one of the most handsome men Lex had ever seen.

"Would she really do that?" Clark asked, still grinning.

"Hugs are her specialty," Lex assured Clark seriously and then laughed. "Come on in. You're welcome here anytime, Clark. Day or night, you can always come visit me."

Lex got to show Clark around a little before it was time for dinner. He'd obviously never seen such a home before. Lex felt like a jerk for showing Clark all the material things he'd never have until Clark stopped him, an amused and exasperated expression on his face.

"Lex," Clark said, "Quit being ashamed of your life. It's a good life. You should be happy that you have all of this stuff."

Lex blinked, staring at Clark until she blushed.

"I wouldn't have expected that out of you," Lex said bemused. "I was feeling bad for showing you things that you'll never have."

"How do you know?" Clark said with a cocky grin that quickly faded. "Sure, the way things are now, I can't have any of this stuff but…"

Clark looked around thoughtfully at Lex's office. The library, the expensive furnishings, the beauty that was completely absent from his own home didn't seem to bother him at all. Lex knew that if he'd been in Clark's shoes he'd have been violently jealous of what he was seeing. That Clark was so calm was another oddity that he filed away in the back of his mind.

"It's inspiration," Clark said quietly. "If you never know that stuff like this exists then you're never inspired to work hard and strive to get it."

"Why everyone thinks so poorly of you I will never know," Lex said, shaking his head in amazement. "You are so amazing."

"No I'm not!" Clark protested, blushing brightly.

"Let's go introduce you to my family," Lex said, chuckling.

"I truly can't thank you enough for saving Lex," Martha said after introductions had been made and Clark had refused all Lionel and Lucas' offers of monetary thanks. She had delivered on the promise of hugging the stuffing out of Clark several times now. "I've never been able to have kids of my own so I love Lex and Lucas like my own children."

"It wasn't anything special," Clark insisted uncomfortably, "Truly, anyone would have done the same thing."

Clark watched Lex's table manners and copied them. He was polite, quiet, respectful and so clearly afraid that they'd get a bad impression of him that he gave away his past troubles without realizing it. Still, dinner went well and Martha managed to get past Clark's reserve and nervousness with ease. As Clark got ready to go home, Martha caught him.

"Please keep an eye out for Lex," Martha asked, not at all caring that Lex was standing right there with his car keys. "I've heard of so many strange things in Smallville. I hope the bridge incident wasn't an omen of things to come."

"Um, strange things happen all the time here," Clark said, "But we haven't had any flesh eating plants or bug swarms in a while so it should be OK."

Lex wanted to laugh but Clark was completely serious. Lex drove Clark home, driving his normal breakneck speed since Clark liked it. As Clark got out back at the farm, Lex leaned over to look up at him.

"I meant it earlier when I said you could visit anytime, Clark," Lex said. "My home is always open to you, day or night. And no formal clothes are required."

"Thank you," Clark said, clearly touched.

Over the next year, Lex saw a lot of Clark. Unfortunately, most of the time he was defending Clark when he got into trouble. Clark was so often at the heart of strange events that Lex started keeping track of them all. It started with a bug collecting boy who loved Lana (Clark's crush) to death and continued with the football coach who could start fires. The fires were blamed on Clark until Lex cleared his name. A serial killer who was restored to youth came next. Lex still wasn't sure how Ethan decided that Clark was responsible for the deaths but he defended Clark successfully. Clark saved Lex from a former LuthorCorp employee affected by a secret experiment his father had initiated years ago, before Martha had entered their lives. It continued all year long, with strange episodes and dangerous events abounding, right up to summertime.

The hard part for Lex was that no matter how Clark got involved, no matter whom he saved, afterwards everyone assumed it was his fault and that he started it. Lex became his strongest defender, confusing most of the residents of Smallville. Lex was seen as the town's savior. He'd reopened the plant, providing hundreds of jobs. He'd gotten involved with saving historic buildings in town. He donated generously to the schools and hospital. Sometimes Lex felt like people wanted to nominate him for sainthood.

But Clark was seen as Lex's exact opposite. He was always in trouble, always had bad grades despite his studies. He always got blamed for everything that happened around him, sometimes even when he wasn't there. He seemed to be cursed. Some people said that the Kent line was cursed, Jonathan having gotten in trouble in his day and his father before him.

Lex saw a different person than everyone else. He saw the troubled young man who only wanted to make the world a better place. He saw the brilliant mind that read and comprehended at an astounding rate. He saw the kindness, the extreme gentleness, the shyness and the sense of humor that Clark hid from the rest of the world. Most importantly, Lex saw the powers Clark thought he hid so well.

It didn't really click until the aftermath of the tornado when Lex and Clark were searching for Jonathan and a reporter who had been trying to sell Lex the "greatest story of the millennium". Lex had always believed in aliens. He just didn't believe that they had come to Earth. Clark's save of Lana, his reaction to the meteor rocks and the evidence left behind by the reporter changed all that.

Clark Kent was an alien.

It changed noting for Lex, absolutely nothing. He never told Clark what he had learned. He destroyed the evidence and freely admitted to Ethan that he'd killed the reporter. Ethan ruled it self-defense and refused to investigate further, just because it was Lex.

Over Lex's second year in Smallville, he slowly couched Clark on how to present himself better, how to act like he'd never had any problems with the law. Smallville insanity continued, threatening both of them. Lex stood by his friend. A growing realization that he had fallen head over heels in love with Clark was sternly repressed.

Clark stood by Lex through his disastrous marriage Desiree, a woman claiming to be Clark's birth mother and Lex's father's old lover and his father's near death when people broke into Lionel's office intent on stealing something from his safe. Lex stood by Clark through his problems, even after he got high on red meteor rock and went on a stealing, extorting rampage. The problems after that were normal Smallville insanity, no matter that everyone thought Clark was responsible when he wasn't. But by the end of the school year, Clark had retreated so far into his shell that Lex was afraid for him, especially after Clark was falsely accused of rape and attempted murder. Lex brought in his lawyers, successfully defending Clark and clearing his name. It took over a month but he succeeded.

"Clark?" Lex called a couple of days later as he headed up the stairs into Clark's loft. "Clark?"

Lex went white as he topped the stairs. There was so much blood. Blood stained the sofa. It puddled on the floor like a wet red rug. It covered Clark who was collapsed in the middle of the red, curled around his left arm. He was unconscious.

"No!" Lex cried, running to Clark's side.

He stared at the sharp hunk of meteor rock in Clark's hand for an endless instant that was actually less than a second before grabbing it and flinging it out of the window as far as his arm could throw it.

When Lex levered Clark over, he found that Clark had slashed his left arm at least 20 times, maybe more. The whole of his inner arm between wrist and elbow was a mass of bleeding cuts. Lex had seen Clark heal instantly so many times that he hadn't thought that Clark could be hurt this badly.

"No…" Clark moaned as Lex desperately bound his arm and tried to stop the slow bleeding. "Lex, no. Can't stand it anymore. Please let me go."

"No!" Lex said brokenly. "I won't! You matter too much to me, Clark."

Jonathan came home about that time. He came running at Lex's screams for help. They got Clark into the house, onto his hard, narrow bed and cleaned up. Clark passed out along the way. Lex eventually let Jonathan pull him downstairs and drank the beer that he gave Lex in one long draught. It was horrid but it was enough to calm him down.

"What happened?" Jonathan asked Lex once he'd stopped shaking.

"I didn't think he'd gotten so depressed," Lex said, his heart breaking for Clark, "I knew he'd withdrawn but not that he'd try and kill himself."

"I didn't either," Jonathan said, rubbing his face with both hands and looking desperate. "What do we do now?"

"Well, we can't take Clark to the hospital," Lex said firmly. "I'm not letting them get their hands on him. You need to call the school and let them know that he tried to commit suicide so that they can watch him while he's there. We also need to clean up the mess in the loft. We can't let anyone get samples of his blood. It would reveal too much."

"You know!" Jonathan said, horrified. He bolted to his feet, staring at Lex.

"Of course I know," Lex snapped, annoyed by his reaction. "I knew he wasn't normal from the day I met him. I know what hitting someone feels like, Jonathan. I've known that he was an alien since the tornado last year."

"That … that long?" Jonathan said, stunned.

"Yes," Lex said, shrugging. The blood drying on his shirt and suit itched but Clark was all he could think of. "I should get back up there. Clark shouldn't be alone right now."

"Go ahead," Jonathan said, not looking happy about it though there wasn't much he could say or do. Lex had known for a long time and protected Clark. "I'll bring you some of Clark's old clothes for you to wear."

Lex headed back up to Clark's room. Clark had curled into a ball around his wounded arm. Lex sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing Clark's back.

"You should have let me die," Clark said quietly and calmly.

"Never," Lex said, tears starting to run down his cheeks. "I will never give up on you, Clark Kent. You mean too much to me."

"As a protégé," Clark said, not moving a muscle.

"No," Lex said, swallowing hard, "I … I love you, Clark."

Clark started and rolled over to look up at Lex. His eyes went wide. Lex knew he had to be a sight: covered in drying blood, tears cutting streaks down his cheeks. He was sure that he visibly distraught but didn't care. That Clark could have been in this bad of condition and Lex didn't realize it was breaking his heart.

"Why didn't you say something?" Clark asked, half-sitting up before he went pale and Lex made him lie back down.

"You're 16," Lex said with a shrug, "And you're interested in Lana. I never thought that I had a chance and I didn't want to make your life harder than it already is."

"Lex," Clark said with an incredulous laugh, "I'm not interested in Lana that way. She's a childhood friend, like a sister to me, nothing more. I'm … well, I've always known that I was gay."

Lex's jaw dropped and Clark laughed in spite of himself. That wasn't a revelation that Lex had expected. It did make sense of a lot of the things he'd learned about Clark. The fights in Junior High and a lot of the harassment at school took on a new light.

"I thought you were straight," Clark said, "Which is why I never said anything to you. I was afraid I'd offend my only friend."

"Actually, I'm bi," Lex said with a shrug. "Made for a very confusing adolescence. I had crushes on everyone."

Clark grinned. Lex smiled back, taking Clark's uninjured right hand and squeezing it. It felt good to admit his feelings and his orientation to Clark. He could see the same sense of relief in Clark's eyes. Clark jumped when Jonathan knocked and then poked his head in the door.

"I have those old clothes of Clark's for you, Lex," Jonathan said.

"I'm fine," Lex said, not wanting to leave Clark's side.

"No you're not," Clark protested. "You're gross. Go get cleaned up. I'll be fine."

"I'll sit with him," Jonathan offered, looking teary.

"All right," Lex said with a sigh, "But no recriminations because I know what Clark is. I found out on my own. Clark never said a word to me."

"What?" Clark said, confused and a little alarmed.

"I've known that you're an alien since the tornado," Lex said with a shrug. "It makes no difference to me. I'll be right back. No doing anything stupid, all right?"

"Uh, sure," Clark said, stunned.

Lex took the clothes and hurried getting clean. He had to agree with Clark's assessment of 'gross' once he saw himself in the mirror. How he'd managed to smear blood over his face and scalp, Lex didn't know. He washed it all off and set his blood-stained clothes aside. Clark's clothes were too big but they were clean. Lex's bench cinched the pants in well enough that they didn't fall off when he stood.

"Those so don't fit you," Clark said when Lex returned. Jonathan grinned agreement. He was holding Clark's uninjured hand. They seemed to have made a bit of peace. Lex was grateful for that. Clark needed his father's full support if he was going to get through this.

"I'll go rustle up some food," Jonathan said, standing.

"With lots of water for Clark," Lex said.

Jonathan nodded and left them alone again. Lex sat on the bed, not on the chair that Jonathan had used. Clark reached out and pulled Lex down next to him.

"Clark!" Lex said, surprised at how much strength he had, even after nearly bleeding to death.

"Just want a hug," Clark said very quietly. "Please?"

"Gladly," Lex said, being careful of Clark's arm.

Clark pulled Lex close and they cuddled for a long time. Lex was busy reassessing their relationship based on Clark's surprise revelation. He had to assume that Clark was doing the same. So it was no surprise when Clark turned his head and Lex found his lips a finger's breadth from Clark's lips. His heart started beating faster.

"Lex…" Clark breathed, the loneliness and need so clear in his eyes.

"You're still only 16," Lex said, leaning closer, so close that their breath mingled. "There's a line that I will not cross until you're 18, Clark."

"Please?" Clark whimpered, hitting Lex with the best set of puppy eyes in the history of the world.

"Cheater," Lex whispered, closing the gap.

Clark obviously hadn't done much kissing before but he was a quick learner. Lex tried to keep things restrained but the need behind Clark's kisses and Lex's own suddenly fulfilled fantasies quickly blew his restraint away.

Clark groaned loudly when their tongues met. He wrapped his arms tight around Lex, trembling. Even with the blankets between them, Lex could feel Clark's arousal. Lex was equally aroused, especially when Clark rolled over the top of Lex, pinning him down.

"Oh god!" Lex gasped into Clark's mouth.

"Lex!" Clark moaned.

"Got the food," Jonathan said, opening the door with an elbow and backing through with a tray full of food.

Clark showed his speed. In an instant, Lex was sitting on the side of the bed. Clark was tucked safely back under the covers. Lex managed not to laugh. He could tell by Jonathan's expression that he knew perfectly well what they had been doing but by some mysterious Kent family logic, if he hadn't actually seen them, then it hadn't happened.

Clark needed help with his dinner. His arm was healing so very slowly that it was almost normal human speed. Or more accurately about Lex's healing speed. Lex frowned, unsure why it was taking so long.

"Meteor rock," Clark said with a shrug. "I'm sort of allergic to it so wounds made by it take longer to heal up, especially ones this extensive. I should be OK in a couple of days."

"Why does it affect you so differently from everyone else?" Lex asked. He laughed before Clark could answer. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to ask you that!"

Clark grinned, ducking his head and looking at Lex through his lashes. It may not have been intended to be seductive but the effect was devastatingly erotic to Lex.

"I guess I'm not that good at lying," Clark said, smirking a little at Lex's reaction to him. "I react that way because they're apparently all that's left of my home world. I think that they give off radiation that affects my body. My body seems to absorb radiation, especially sunshine."

"And the meteor rock's radiation is harmful to you," Lex said, nodding thoughtfully. "Sometime we ought to do some experiments to see how close you can get and how much it takes to have an effect."

"Uh…" Clark said, eyes going wide.

"Nothing serious," Lex said reassuringly, "Just put out a piece a specific size and see how close you can get to it before it hurts. And if pieces of different sizes have different ranges. Might be useful knowledge someday."

Clark made a face but nodded reluctant agreement. They talked until Clark started falling asleep. Lex stayed, sitting on the bed next to Clark for well over two hours. Nightmares materialized, just as Lex had expected. Lex woke Clark each time and held him until he finally dropped into a deep dreamless sleep.

"Stay," Jonathan whispered as Lex made to get up and go. "He needs you."

The rider 'as much as I hate it' lingered unsaid in the air, ignored by both of them.

"I need to call home," Lex whispered, nodding agreement. "Stay with him for a bit."

Lex crept out of the bedroom and went down to the porch. He stared up that the stars for a long moment before pulling out his cell phone. He called the mansion first, letting his staff know what had happened. They were as horrified as Lex was, though most of them tended to believe that Clark had to be at least a little bad to have such a reputation. They hid it well or they wouldn't have stayed employed with him. Next Lex called Martha, which was somehow much harder, given how much she'd come to care for Clark.

"Lex?" Martha said sleepily. Lionel murmured something in the background. "What's wrong? Why are you calling at this time of night?"

"Clark tried to commit suicide today," Lex said, not able to keep the pain out of his voice. "We caught it in time but he's got a long way to go before he's out of danger. I'm spending some time at the farm to help him."

"Oh my God!" Martha said, horrified. "Oh Lex! Should we come out?"

"No, not yet," Lex said sighing. "Clark's in a really confused state of mind. Give it a couple of days to a week first. We don't want to overwhelm him."

"All right," Martha said reluctantly. "But you make sure he knows that we're all behind him. Those idiots in Smallville have no idea what a wonderful person Clark is. I'm going to hug that boy until he feels better once we come out."

"Thanks Mom," Lex chuckled. "I'm going to head back in. I'll let you know what happens."

Lex ended up curled up in bed with Clark. He'd started out sitting beside him on the bed but by degrees Clark had sleepily drawn Lex down into the bed with him. Lex smiled and rubbed Clark's back through his frequent nightmares. He eventually fell asleep cradling Clark in his arms.

Clark had attempted suicide on Saturday evening. By Sunday afternoon the entire town knew by some magical small town gossip network. On Monday, Clark was strong enough to go to school, though Lex was positive it was a bad idea.

"If you can't deal with any of it," Lex said as he dropped Clark off, "Come to the mansion. The school already knows what happened. They shouldn't allow any teasing but if it does get bad, just leave. You don't have to put up with it."

"It's just one week," Clark said, smiling weakly. "I can deal with it for that long."

They struck Lex as fabulous last words, but he didn't say anything. When Clark showed up at the mansion less than two hours later, shaking and near to tears, Lex just hugged him and helped him calm down. Clark tried again on Tuesday and lasted to lunch. Wednesday he lasted to 2:30. So on Thursday when Clark didn't show up at the mansion, Lex assumed that managed to make it through the school day. At least until Pete showed up in a panic.

"Dude, where's Clark?" Pete demanded, striding into Lex's office as if he owned it.

"What happened?" Lex asked, instantly worried.

"He left school at 8:30 this morning," Pete said, pale and wide eyed. "Everyone assumed that he went here or home. I already checked the farm and he's not there."

"He's not here either," Lex said, going pale.

"Crap," Pete breathed, hands clenching in fists.

Lex spent the next two months desperately trying to find Clark. Jonathan got occasional calls where someone hung up without speaking. Lex traced the calls to a series of payphones in Metropolis but Clark was much harder to track down. Lex's whole family got involved in the search, even Lucas. So Lex wasn't surprised to see him when Lucas showed up midway through the third month of Clark's absence. What worried Lex was that Lucas was abnormally grim, with not a single joke or quip on his lips.

"Did you find something?" Lex asked, jumping to his feet.

"You want to be sitting down," Lucas said grimly.

"That bad?" Lex asked, sitting slowly in his desk chair.

Lucas just handed Lex a folder and a CD. As soon as he opened the folder, Lex was glad that Lucas had made him sit. The first page was a photo of Clark having sex with three other men. The rest of the papers were worse, some much, much worse. Lex felt ill as he closed the folder and looked up at Lucas.

"He's a whore," Lucas said, looking equally ill at the thought of kind, gentle Clark doing something like that. "He's going by the name of Kal. He's very popular because he'll let the clients do whatever they want to him. You need to save him, Lex. I know how much you love him. You can't let him keep doing this to himself."

Lex's troubles at Excelsior hung between them, an unspoken fact that the family never spoke of outside of therapy sessions. It was too painful, even years later. Lucas' brief flirtation with prostitution while off of his medication went equally unspoken. Lex nodded grimly.

"I'll find him and bring him home," Lex promised. "I didn't realize that you knew how I felt about him."

"Please," Lucas drawled, rolling his eyes, "You two are so obvious that it's painful. Go on. I gave you all the info that you'll need to contact him and lure him in."

"Thank you, Lucas."

A week later, Lex had set his trap and Clark walked right into it. He thought that he was to be the 'entertainment' at a private party, complete with a limo ride to get there. But instead of the empty back seat of a limo, Clark found Lex waiting for him.

"Clark," Lex breathed, locking the doors before Clark could get back out, "God, I missed you so much!"

He pulled Clark closer, onto the seat. Clark was trembling, his eyes as big a saucers.

"I know what you did and it's OK," Lex said.

"It's OK?!" Clark exploded, horrified that Lex could condone what he'd done, "How can you say that? I was a whore!"

"So was I at Excelsior," Lex said, shrugging, "And I was a good bit younger than you."

"What?" Clark stared at Lex, dumbfounded.

Lex smiled. He straddled Clark's hips smoothly, running his hands over Clark's shoulders and up to his cheeks. Lex also wanted to get closer, to touch Clark. He'd never seen Clark dressed this way before. Instead of his normal baggy flannel shirt and loose jeans, Clark was dressed in the tightest, sexiest clothes possible. His white T-shirt might have been painted on this body. His jeans were so tight that they conformed to every curve and bulge of his body, especially his rapidly growing groin.

"Lex…" Clark breathed, hope and fear battling in his eyes. His breathing had gone ragged as soon as Lex sat in his lap.

"When I was 9 years old," Lex said relatively calmly, "My mother Lillian killed my infant brother Julian. She smothered him because she couldn't stand to see him raised the way I was being raised. Father was nothing like he is now. He was cold, viscous, cruel and vindictive. He would have destroyed Mom so I took the blame. I blocked the memory of her killing Julian from my mind for years. Father took all of his grief and rage at Julian's loss out on me. I was sent off to Excelsior, a boarding school for rich kids."

Lex sighed, wrapping his arms around Clark's neck. He nuzzled Clark's neck, making him moan. Clark wrapped his arms around Lex, warm and comforting. Lex knew quite well that he needed the comfort. Talking about that period in his life was never easy.

"Lillian had gone crazy," Lex continued, speaking into Clark's neck. "Her heath deteriorated and when I was 12 she died. It was more than I could deal with. I started using my allowance to buy booze and drugs off of the older students. Father found out pretty quickly and cut off my allowance. Taking away the money didn't take away my need to dull the pain. So I started paying for the booze and drugs with my body."

"You really …?" Clark asked, making Lex pull back and look him in the eyes.

"Oh yes," Lex said, deadly serious. "For over a year, actually. I heal so fast that they could get really brutal with me and there'd be nothing to show the next day. They liked that, a lot."

"Yeah, they do like that, don't they?" Clark sighed, pulling Lex close again. "What happened?"

"Mom," Lex said. "She'd met Father shortly before Lillian's death. The two of them had an instant connection. Over the next year, they fell in love and then got married. I was brought home for the wedding and she instantly knew that I needed help. She fought Father and won. I never went back to Excelsior. She had an incredible psychotherapist brought in to help me. The psychotherapist ended up doing therapy with all of us, Father included. Martha saved me, saved Dad, found and saved Lucas. All she asked for in return was that we 'try and love her'. As if that was a challenge."

"She is pretty incredible," Clark said, rubbing Lex's back and making him moan. "Where are we going? I thought that we would have stopped by now."

"No, we're going home, back to Smallville," Lex said, chuckling at Clark's instantaneous start. Every muscle under Lex turned to stone. "You're going to stay in the mansion and talk to the same psychotherapist that I did. Your father ahs already agreed."

"You're kidding!" Clark said, astonished. "Dad agreed to let me live with you?"

"Well, not quite like that," Lex laughed, grinning at Clark. "But yes, you're staying with me until the doctor says that you're ready to go home and back to school."

"Why not more?" Clark asked, the movement of his hands suddenly seductive and highly erotic. "All I ever thought about when they were touching me was you."

"You're 16, Clark," Lex said and gasped as Clark's hands squeezed just a hair too hard on Lex's ass. "You're jail bait and I'm not willing to risk our whole lives together for an hour or two of underage sex."

"Our … whole lives?" Clark asked, his voice squeaking.

"I love you, Clark Kent," Lex said tenderly as he caressed Clark's smooth cheek. "And I want to spend my life with you by my side. If I could, I would marry you. Maybe by the time you're 18 we'll be able to. But until then, we have to wait. I love you too much to risk loosing you because the law landed on us."

"They'd never arrest you, Lex," Clark said, pulling Lex closer, so close that his nose rubbed against Lex's. "You're Lex Luthor. You can do no wrong. They'd arrest me for something."

"My point," Lex said, smiling at Clark. "I won't risk either of—"

His words were suddenly cut off as Clark kissed him. He'd gotten much better since their first hesitant kisses. Clark knew almost as much about kissing as Lex did now. Lex couldn't help but moan as a corner of his mind quipped that Clark had always been a quick learner.

"Clark we can't—"

Clark recaptured Lex's lips, pulling open Lex's shirt. Lex tried to push Clark away but it was like trying to love a skyscraper with his bare hands. He was completely helpless as Clark ravished him. It made him twice as hard and at least 10 times as aroused. Clark growled as he realized Lex was getting off on being helpless. His eyes sparkled as he flipped their positions, pinning Lex underneath him on the limo's seat.

"Clark, don't!" Lex gasped, trying to fight and getting pinned completely for his efforts. Lex whimpered. This was terrifying. It was also fulfillment of hundreds of Lex's fantasies. Clark stripped Lex nude, used his tongue and fingers to thoroughly prepare Lex. He then pushed slowly into Lex's body.

"Oh god!" Clark and Lex said as one, in the exact same reverent tone of voice.

"Clark, please, no, don't, we can't," Lex pleaded, pushing against Clark as he did what they both knew Lex wanted. Lex's protests and fighting were just part of it, somehow as necessary as breathing for their first time together.

Lex came long before Clark did, spraying his belly and up to his chin with come. Clark grinned and licked it up while still pounding into Lex's body. When Clark stiffened and gasped, burying himself to the hilt in Lex, Lex screamed and came again. It was like a fire hose in his ass, filling him up with far more than Lex had ever had from one person.

Clark moaned and collapsed on top of Lex, panting. Lex cuddled him in his arms and legs, sore and bruised and more satisfied than he'd been in years. He held Clark there for a long moment before letting Clark pull out.

"Shouldn't … have done that," Lex said, running his fingers through Clark's hair.

"Why?" Clark asked, hurt and pouting.

"Because now I'll never be able to stop thinking about you," Lex said with a grin.

Clark grinned and pinned Lex's legs, licking him clean. Lex protested, fought and moaned, making Clark laugh. He held Lex still, teasing and working to get him aroused again, despite Lex's protests. It worked very well and Lex was quickly hard as a rock and panting.

"I know you're enjoying it," Clark said, grinning wickedly.

"We still shouldn't – Clark!" Lex barked as Clark pressed his fingers into Lex again.

"I've gotten used to lots more sex than this," Clark said, "And we've still got ages before we make it to Smallville."

"Clark!"

The second time was even better than the first. The third was slow and gentle, with Lex riding on top of Clark and in total control. Clark had apparently never been with someone who'd learned to use his ass to milk a cock. Lex had him whimpering and begging for more and faster in minutes. After that they cuddled and Clark told him some of the things that had happened to make him run away. Lex memorized the names to make sure that they paid for hurting his Clark that way.

The next two and a half weeks were almost idyllic, if you left out the pain Clark went through with the psychotherapist. Lex helped him through it, held his hand, dried his tears, listened to his rages and tried unsuccessfully to fight off Clark's continuing sexual advances. It became something of a game. Lex could say no in his office or places where people might catch them. But in private Clark ruled, taking Lex in every way imaginable and then some. His incredible strength and speed made some impossible positions completely possible.

By the time school started, Clark was ready. Lex knew that his summer and the continuing therapy had made enough of a difference that things would be better for his young lover. The next year was different for Lex, too. Lex had been in danger many times since he came to Smallville. This year the threats seemed to change, though. No longer was it rival businessmen or random crazies coming after Lex. Clark's enemies came hunting for Lex. Clark saved Lex time and again. He developed new powers and learned to use them, including super hearing, X-ray vision and a sexually triggered heat ray that nearly burned up Lex's garden one day. Lex installed closed circuit TV monitoring over the house and grounds after one too many murder attempts. Only his bedroom was left unmonitored. A man had to have some privacy and the monitors meant that Clark had to restrain himself everywhere else.

As another summer neared, Lana announced that she was leaving town, going to Paris. Everyone seemed to expect Clark to fall apart but he only tried to find out why she'd gotten so afraid of him in their freshman year.

"Lex!" Lana snapped as she stormed into his office.

"Lana," Lex said, surprised. "I would have thought that you'd be getting ready for Paris."

"Are you really Clark's lover?" Lana demanded, eyes wide as she watched his face.

"I want to spend my life with him," Lex said carefully. He couldn't admit to everything with the cameras recording them. "He agrees. Why?"

"He's really gay?" Lana said, completely disbelieving it. "Seriously?"

"Yes," Lex said, puzzled. "Last summer he was a gay prostitute when he ran away to Metropolis. Why?"

"He raped me," Lana said, pressing trembling fingers to her mouth. "Our freshman year he came to me and he raped me. But when I confronted Clark about it today he said that he'd never have done that because he's gay and never felt that way about me."

"Oh god, Lana," Lex said, going to her side, "That's horrible! Are you OK?"

"As if you'd understand," Lana said scornfully, tears in her eyes.

"I was raped repeatedly at Excelsior, Lana," Lex said. "I do understand at least a little of what you went through."

She started and stared at him, apparently seeing the truth in his eyes. She sighed and nodded an apology, hugging herself.

"He really didn't do it," Lana said, swallowing hard. "I thought it was him for so long but he really didn't do it."

"He would never hurt you, Lana," Lex said. "You're the sister he never had."

She blinked and then smiled the smile that transformed her from girl to beautiful woman. If Lex had never been able to win Clark's heart, he often thought that he could have been very happy with Lana. It wasn't anything he'd ever tell her but it was something that he was always aware of when he was around her.

The summer should have been Lex and Clark's first quiet one together but an accident revealed the ancient Kawatche caves. Clark began to be haunted by his birth father's megalomaniacal AI. A couple of weeks after Lana left town, Clark was abducted into the AI. Between the two of them, Jonathan and Lex managed to get Clark back.

He'd been brainwashed to be Kal-El but with the help of an unexpected variety of meteor rock, Lex managed to help Clark break free. It was the weirdest thing that Lex had ever seen. Clark nearly split in two as he battled Kal-El, his other half.

"Lex?" Clark whispered once he was free. Lexes clung to him, determined that they would figure out what Jor-El wanted and somehow protect Clark from it.

"I'm here," Lex said, holding and kissing Clark. "I've got you, love. I'll always be here for you."

"He won't give up," Clark whispered, clinging to Lex. "He'll drive us apart somehow. I know he will."

"He's never dealt with a Luthor before," Lex declared fiercely, getting a tired grin from Clark. "He'd better watch himself or I'll just blow this place up and him with it."

They headed back to the mansion, letting Jonathan know what had happened. He'd gotten somewhat more accepting of their relationship over the last year but still didn't approve. Lex sometimes wondered if there was anyone that Jonathan would approve of for Clark. It didn't seem like it to Lex.

"Not sure that blowing the caves up would work," Clark said once Jonathan had come and gone. They'd spent the last couple of hours talking and sharing what had happened while Clark had been 'gone'.

"Why not?" Lex asked, petting Clark's hair tenderly.

"I think it would just deactivate the explosives," Clark said, leaning into Lex's hand before pulling Lex into his lap.

"How did you destroy the space ship?" Lex asked, sighing at Clark's move and shaking his head in mock dismay.

"I know, I know, I'm still only 17," Clark said and grinned. "Don't care, I still love touching you. I loaded it up with meteor rock, actually. Big lead box of it. It almost killed me to be near that much meteor rock. It wouldn't be enough for the caves. And you couldn't get out of the caves fast enough to escape the blast that would follow."

"That's what robots are for," Lex said, trying to pull out of Clark's arms and groaning when Clark didn't let go. "You know we have to wait. Let go!"

"Toll," Clark demanded with a grin, "You want out, pay the toll."

"Stubborn," Lex said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup," Clark said, laughing. "Patient too."

"Lex laughed and kissed Clark tenderly. They both knew they shouldn't. They were in Lex's office, on the couch. Anyone could come in and the security system was on, taping everything they did.

"Didn't expect to find this," the new sheriff said, her voice dry.

Lex and Clark both jumped. Lex gave Clark a look and he sighed, letting Lex go.

"Sorry about that," Lex said, "What brings you out here, Sheriff?"

"Came to arrest the boy," she said firmly, glaring at Clark.

"What?!" Clark said, bolting to his feet.

"I beg your pardon?!" Lex said, infuriated. "On what charge?"

He couldn't believe that this was happening again. He'd proved over and over again that Clark didn't commit these sorts of crimes but it appeared easier for people to just assume and accuse him than to actually investigate and capture the real criminals.

"Obviously should be for rape," the sheriff sniffed, making Lex go red with anger and Clark go pale, "But it's actually for grand theft auto, bank robbery and attempted murder. With witnesses who saw the boy all over the place."

"When did this happen?" Lex asked, putting a hand on Clark's arm to keep him from bolting.

"Half an hour ago," she said, raising an eyebrow at them.

"Not a chance it's Clark," Lex said, calming. "He's been here with me under closed circuit TV for the past couple of hours."

"You can prove that?" the sheriff asked, rocked back on her heels in surprise.

Lex went to his computer, called up the monitoring program and edited out the vocals, leaving only the visuals. He burned the last six hours to CD. It all had a date and time stamp, proving that while the crimes were being committed, Clark Kent was somewhere else entirely, with not only eyewitnesses but purely objective evidence of his innocence.

"This is the second verified time that someone else has committed crimes while looking like Clark," Lex said to the sheriff seriously. "I suspect that 99% of the crimes that people think Clark committed have actually been done by his doppelganger."

"Damn," the sheriff said, looking frustrated. "Now what?"

"You do your job and investigate," Lex snapped. "You have a murderous shape shifter in town, Sheriff. Given that it's Smallville that's not that much of a stretch."

"True," the sheriff said, rolling her eyes. "Keep an eye on your … friend, Mr. Luthor. If he's alone or unmonitored and other crime is committed I'll have to assume that its him."

She left ignoring Clark's whimper and Lex's glare. Lex waited until she'd left and then slammed the door to his office to burn off a tiny bit of his anger and outrage. Clark huddled on the couch, too afraid that it was all beginning again to be able to be angry.

"Idiot," Lex growled, "Lazy, sloppy idiot!"

"So what do we do?" Clark asked, trembling. "I can't stay here forever. I have to help at the farm and school starts in a few days."

"I got your father some temporary hands while you were gone," Lex said, "So they can stay a couple of extra days or extra weeks if necessary. I'm also thinking of giving you a bodyguard until this is finally dealt with."

"A bodyguard?" Clark said, astonished. "Lex, there's no one in the world who needs a bodyguard less than I do."

"True," Lex said, "But you'd be escorted at all times if you had one. It would ensure that you couldn't be blamed for any of the idiotic crimes anymore."

Clark groaned and tried to argue the point. Lex stood firm. When Clark went back to school a couple of days later, he had the bodyguard with him. The other students may have snickered but they all understood that Clark's life was anything but normal. A week later, the sheriff visited Lex in the middle of the school day.

"Mr. Luthor," she said without preamble, "I have to say that my opinion of you only improved after watching that footage. You really love Clark Kent, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," Lex said, raising an eyebrow at her. "Do you have anything new on Clark's double?"

"Yes, I do," she said, reaching into her coat and pulling out a gun.

Lex froze. The sheriff shifted shapes, becoming a young woman with brunette hair. Lex recognized her as Tina, one of Clark's classmates who had always said that she believed he was innocent. Now he knew how she could be so convinced of Clark's innocence. Lex had one hand right next to the panic button and the other hand close to the drawer with his handgun. He didn't dare move yet, not while she was glaring at him so fiercely.

"You're ruining everything," Tina said, glaring at Lex. "Clark's the perfect scapegoat and you're ruining it. Lana's back and I have another chance at getting her but I need money and a good car to do it. You're ruining my chances by keeping Clark from being alone so that he can be blamed for my crimes."

"You're the one who raped Lana," Lex said, suddenly making the connection.

"It wasn't rape!" Tina said, waving her arms, including the one holding the gun on Lex. "She struggled a little at first but I made sure she enjoyed it! Lana belongs to me and I just need to make sure that she knows it."

Lex slid his hand to the panic button while she was distracted. As soon as it was pressed, silent alarms went off, notifying his staff and the police that something was wrong. There was no sign of it inside of Lex's office but help was one the way. Now all Lex had to do was make sure that Tina didn't get away to implicate Clark in another of her crimes.

"Lana thought it was rape," Lex said firmly. "She told me about it when she found out that Clark was gay."

"It wasn't rape!" Tina yelled, gun pointed at Lex again. Tina gasped as the door burst open, Lex's security team arriving with their guns at ready. "Do anything and I'll kill him!"

Lex pulled out his gun and fired, hitting her in the leg. Tina screamed but didn't drop her gun. Lex shot again at the same time that his men fired. Tina was hit in the shoulder, thigh and side. This time she fell. By the time Clark made it to the mansion after school it was all over. Tina had confessed to all the crimes that Clark had been accused of, plus a few others that no one had connected before.

"Are you all right?" Clark asked as he hurried in.

"Fine," Lex said, smiling at Clark and going to his side. "Tina confessed to everything, Clark. All of the things that people have blamed on you for years were really her fault. Your name is clear, at last."

"S-seriously?" Clark said, shocked.

"Seriously," Lex said. He laughed as Clark swept him up in his arms in delight.

"Congratulations," Lex said, grinning at Clark.

"You did it, not me," Clark said a little sadly. "I can't save anyone."

"You saved me many times," Lex said, snorting. "Now that you don't have a double committing crimes in your name, I'm sure that things will be better."

"I hope that you're right," Clark sighed, nuzzling Lex's ear, "But I think that I'm cursed to be reviled and loose all my friends."

"Then I guess that I'll just have to break your curse the way Mom broke the Luthor curse," Lex said, kissing Clark.

"How long until I'm 18?" Clark groaned, breath hot on Lex's face.

"Mere months," Lex said and laughed at Clark's groan of dismay.

Things did improve dramatically for Clark. Once everyone in town learned about his double, people began to give him a chance for the first time in years. Clark proved to the rest of the town that he was exactly what Lex had always said that he was: a good, kind, gentle person who just wanted to help people. He still got some teasing for being gay but it was partially admiring. The sheriff hadn't kept the CC-TV recording Lex gave her strictly secret. Lots of people apparently saw Lex and Clark together, talking, snuggling and kissing but not crossing the line into sex. The way most people chose to view it, Clark had somehow 'turned' Lex gay, which made Lex snort in disgust.

Clark made the football team, a dream he'd had since small childhood. Both Lex and Jonathan had doubts but Clark proved hat he could play fair with his teammates and opponents. He never cheated and used his powers, not even when Chloe's life was on the line during the championship game due to a super-powered bookie.

Lana came back a changed woman. Her trip to Paris had put a lot of polish on her. She'd changed from a simple farm girl to a stylish young woman with great taste, perfect clothes and a rich boyfriend with secrets of his own. That her rich boyfriend was also the assistant coach at her high school complicated things dramatically.

Lex discovered the Jason / Lana romance by accident when he visited her in the hospital after another student induced a hallucinogenic incident due to her meteor rock beauty treatment. Chloe and Clark discovered the source of the problem and saw that Lana and the other football player who had been affected by the girl were given treatment. Lex was somewhat less than pleased with Chloe's addition to the equation when she revealed her crush on Clark after the cheerleaders spiked the football team's Gatorade with a secret love potion.

"Lex," Clark said later, rolling his eyes, "I told her that I'm gay. It's not like she's a threat to our relationship."

"She's still interested," Lex grumbled, "It shows."

"Are you jealous?" Clark asked, starting to grin.

"Of course not!" Lex said, blushing because he was ferociously jealous. He wasn't going to admit that to Clark, not when he was grinning like that.

"You are jealous!" Clark said, laughing with delight as he swept Lex up. "That's so cute. As if Chloe could ever compete with you."

The passionate sex that followed reassured Lex to a degree but he was slowly becoming worried in spite of himself. Lex told Clark he loved him several times a day but Clark had yet to say the words that Lex wanted, needed to hear. He'd yet to say he loved Lex even once.

As the year continued, Lex focused on finding a way to neutralize Jor-El while Clark focused on his senior year and dealing with the normal Smallville insanity.

"So you think you've found a connection?" Clark asked Lex a month or so after the championship game.

"Yes," Lex said, "The symbols that are painted in the Kawatche caves turn out to be not quite as unique as I originally thought. They're scattered all over the world in dozens of ancient cultures. My researchers have found them in ancient Egypt, Greece, India, China, France, Russia and many other places. Your home world has been in contact with Earth for most of Earth's history, Clark."

"Huh," Clark said, frowning, "Other than the similar appearance between our people, I wonder why. What could they have gained from it?"

"No idea yet," Lex said, "But it gives us something to work with. I've started acquiring artifacts with the symbols on them. I'm hoping that we can come up with something helpful."

"At least I'll be able to read whatever you find," Clark said, sighing. "That seems to be all that I have left of my time as Kal-El."

"Thank goodness for that," Lex said.

Artifacts from all over the world started arriving at the mansion. Each one became another point of data, another clue in the puzzle. There was a clear pattern. Somewhere the Kryptonians had hidden a storehouse of knowledge and power that people had been seeking for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

"Do you see anything?" Lex asked as Clark examined an artifact from Egypt.

"There's a crystal inside," Clark said, fascinated. "It's got one of the symbols on it."

"Break it!" Lex said, excited to see the crystal.

"Lex!" Clark said, horrified. "You spent a fortune on this artifact. I can't break it!"

"It's a means to an end," Lex said, taking the sculpture away from Clark and throwing it to the ground. It smashed, revealing the clear crystal hidden inside.

"Beautiful," Lex breathed, picking up the crystal.

"Argh!" Clark gasped, clutching his head in pain. Clark snatched the crystal away from Lex and sighed with relief.

"What happened?" Lex asked, worried about Clark.

"As soon as you touched it," Clark said, rubbing his ear, "It made this horrible noise. It stopped as soon as I took it away."

They tested it gingerly but the noise that only Clark could hear didn't occur again. Lex theorized that it was a warning for any of Clark's people that an 'object of power' was in danger of being misused. They continued their quest, unaware at that time that it was being paralleled by Lana and Jason Teague, her boyfriend from Paris. They only discovered Lana's involvement when she suddenly developed an alter ego of her own, displaying magical powers.

"Alexander," Lana almost literally purred as she swept into his office as he practices the piano, "I had no idea that you could play so well."

"Lana," Lex said, smiling but on alert. The way she moved and spoke had nothing to so with the Lana he'd gotten to know over the last several years. "Thank you but I'm not that good. I need lots of practice."

Lana leaned on the piano, smiling at Lex. There was something about her eyes and the way she smiled that truly was making Lex uncomfortable but she didn't do anything overtly threatening.

"I was hoping that you could help me with a surprise present for Chloe's birthday party," Lana said, running a far too seductive finger down Lex's arm. "I'd like to give her a taste of France, say a nice red wine from France?"

"Well," Lex said uncomfortably, "I suppose it won't do too much harm. Let me see what I have."

Lex's gut was saying to push the panic button but there was truly nothing to warrant it. Yet. Lex returned from the wine cellar to find Lana glaring at the remnants of the Egyptian artifact that had held the crystal of power.

"Here you go," Lex said, giving the bottle to Lana and then gasping as power flared over her.

"Where is it?" Lana demanded. "Where is the crystal?"

"Lana…" Lex rasped through a throat suddenly too tight to draw air.

"You have touched it," the woman who was clearly not Lana said, circling Lex slowly. "But it does not belong to you. You gave it to your … master. Yes, that is what happened. Well, no matter. I shall wrest it from him and destroy him before returning to destroy you."

"No!" Lex gasped, trying to struggle in vain.

"Ha!" the not-Lana laughed. "You cannot fight me, little toy. You have served your purpose but I dare not destroy you immediately, lest your master sense my presence before I destroy him. You need to practice Lex. Infinito."

Lex found himself moving to the piano and practicing, playing the same song over and over again. He tried to fight but he couldn't stop himself. Whatever the woman that had taken over Lana's body had done, it was beyond Lex's strength to break her hold. He played for hours. It was early morning when Clark arrived. Lex's fingers had turned the keys red with his blood. Clark didn't notice immediately but once he did he was horrified.

"Lex," Clark said, "Stop! Stop playing!"

"Can't," Lex managed to gasp, blinking through the sweat pouring into his eyes. He groaned with relief as Clark pushed the piano away. "Lana … changed. After the crystal, Clark. Be careful."

"I will, Lex," Clark said, grimly. He bandaged Lex's battered fingers and disappeared. He came back several hours later, white-faced and afraid. Lana had stripped him of his powers and taken the crystal from him. She went to the Kawatche caves. Jason had found Clark chained in the barn and had freed him. Clark had managed to send him off to the Talon while Clark went to get Lex for help.

"She has Chloe and Chloe's cousin Lois in her power," Clark explained as they drove to the caves. "They've somehow become reincarnations of witches from the middle ages."

"I've got my gun," Lex said, patting the pocket in his jacket. "We can't let them get ahead of us by too much."

The battle in the caves became one of Lex's weirder memories. The Countess Isobel may have had access to Lana's memories but she quite clearly didn't understand them very well. Lex managed to shoot the crystal out of her hand before she realized that the gun was a weapon. Once she did, both the gun and Lex were flung into the rock wall.

"That's mine!" Isobel yelled with Lana's voice as Clark dove for the crystal.

Clark glowed from within with a blindingly white light as soon as he touched the crystal. All of the injuries that Isobel and the witches had given him disappeared. He straightened up, holding the crystal to his chest protectively.

"How?!" Isobel demanded. "I took your powers. No warlock should have been able to get them back!"

"I'm not a warlock," Clark said, so proud and noble as he glared at them that it made Lex's heart swell with pride, "I'm not from around here."

"Clark!" Lex called, "The book! That has to be the source of her powers!"

Clark's eyes flared red and the book that was the source of Countess Isobel burst into flame, exploding. Lana, Chloe and Lois were all knocked out, letting Clark and Lex get them out of the secret inner cave.

"It goes here," Clark said, staring at the stone table in the center of the hidden room.

"With two others," Lex said, nodding slowly. "This might be the safest place for it, now that we know others are looking for the crystals."

They exchanged a look, both looking at the unconscious Lana / Isobel. Clark left the crystal there and they left the chamber. The door sealed itself behind them, making Clark sigh with relief. Lex patted his back reassuringly, feeling just as relieved as Clark. They got Lana, Chloe and Lois back to their homes, answering their questions with carefully edited accounts of what they'd done while possessed by the witches spirits.

"She said something about a map to another crystal," Clark said later at the farm, "And that the crystals are the source of great power and knowledge."

"I can't believe that magic is real," Jonathan said frowning at Clark rubbing Lex's back.

"It's real and it can hurt me," Clark said, dead serious.

"We need to try and find that map," Lex said, gingerly sipping at the coffee that Clark had gotten the three of them. His perception of what was too hot was definitely not accurate most of the time. Lex had burned his tongue more than once. "We need to keep an eye on Lana, too. As long as she has that tattoo, I suspect that she's going to be a danger."

Clark and Jonathan both agreed with that but none of them had any idea of how to get the tattoo off of Lana's body, especially without revealing Clark's true origins to her. Finding the map took a huge amount of money and some close bargaining but other than that it was easy. Clark interpreted the manuscript's symbols to say 'look deeper' and found a map underneath with his X-ray vision. Lex had his experts scan it and got a detailed rendition of the map hidden underneath.

So while Lex was annoyed when a super-speed young thief stole it right out of Lex's state-of-the-art security system, he wasn't as annoyed as he would have been otherwise.

"You know the thief?" Lex said once Clark confessed to Lex.

"He saved Dad from being hit by a truck when we went to see the game in Metropolis," Clark said. "Unfortunately, he also stole Dad's wallet. I tracked him down and well, we sort of got to be friends. But he won't stop stealing things and I know he saw us kissing. I guess he … decided that I was stealing from you in a different way. I confronted him and he threw our relationship in my face then ran off."

Clark looked so hurt that Lex hugged him.

"I'd be glad if you'd LET me give you anything," Lex said, getting a weak smile from Clark. "Don't worry. There aren't that many fences who could handle that sort of heist. We'll find him and the manuscript pretty easily. I'll make sure that he doesn't get hurt."

"I'm going along," Clark said grimly. "I'm not going to let you get hurt."

"Well, stay in the car until I signal," Lex said, frowning. "Bart does know your weakness."

Clark stayed in the car until Lex was knocked out. Bart did use kryptonite agains him but changed his mind at the last instant. Lex came to slowly, his head aching from the fierce blow he'd received from the fence.

"Lex?" Clark asked, holding him tenderly, "Please, wake up Lex. God, I couldn't live without you! Please wake up."

Lex moaned, his head throbbing as he tried to move a little. Despite the pain, he smiled, leaning into his young lover's embrace. Clark's arms tightened and he made a sound that was suspiciously like a sob.

"Like … hearing … you care," Lex whispered. "Don't hear it … that much."

The manuscript was returned during the night, with no note or any sign of how it was restored to the display. Clark did hear from Bart again. They made up and remained friends. Bart apologized for his words about Clark and Lex's relationship. Clark tried to get Bart to stay in Smallville. His eyes were very wide as he told Lex about how fast Bart could really move.

Life seemed to go back to normal, or at least as normal as things could be in Smallville, Kansas. Strange things continued to happen but for the first time, Clark wasn't the one automatically blamed every time. He started developing friendships and his grades improved as people stopped harassing him.

Lionel and Martha had joined the search for artifacts without really knowing what they were or why they were so important to Lex and Clark. About two months before Clark's birthday, Lionel and Martha arrived bearing another artifact with a crystal inside of it, this time black.

"It was inside a Mayan artifact," Lionel explained, "And given your recent fascination with ancient artifacts and crystals, I thought that you'd be interested to see it as soon as we got it."

"We are," Lex said, reaching to take the crystal from Lionel.

Clark gasped and knocked Lex out of the way. His hand contacted Lionel's and the crystal. There was a flash of light and both Clark and Lionel gasped, staggered and fell to the floor.

"Clark?!" Lex said, hurrying to Clark's side.

"Honey?" Martha said in the same alarmed tone of voice as she hurried to Lionel's side.

"I'm not—" both Clark and Lex said at once, "He's—!"

It took nearly an hour to sort out what had happened, as well as to deal with the news that Lionel had been diagnosed with a fatal liver disease. Lex wasn't sure what was more disturbing, hearing that his father was dying or that his lover was now inhabiting his father's body.

"I'm going to die?" Clark-in-Lionel's body said, going pale.

"No," Lionel-in-Clark's body said, "Because we are going to switch back. Once we figure out what happened."

"We will find a cure," Lex said, grimly determined. "If you'd never met Martha things would be different but you're my father and I love you. We'll find a cure."

"First we switch you two back," Martha said, equally determined. "You're a wonderful boy, Clark but I want my Lionel back."

Switching turned out to be a simple matter of waiting for the crystal to recharge. It took 24 hours, 24 very long hours for all of them. It felt very strange to be talking so intimately with 'Lionel', even though Lex knew it was really Clark inside the bearded body. Martha seemed equally freaked out by it though she hid it with her normal skill.

"It's strange being so weak," Clark-in-Lionel said. "I never realized how frail humans really are. I've never been this weak, other when Lana stole my powers. That was only for an hour or so. How do you deal with it?"

"It's all we know," Lex said with a shrug. "We just accept it."

"It makes the meteor freaks make so much more sense," Clark observed quietly. "To suddenly be given so much power and have no guidance on how to use it, how to control it. No wonder they go crazy…"

"Maybe we could help them," Lex said looking out at the night, "Find them, gather them together and train them to use their gifts. Find ways to keep them sane."

"That's a great idea!" Clark said. His normal grin was a bizarre thing on Lionel's bearded face.

Both couples were intensely relieved when the switch back finally occurred. Clark remembered everything from the previous 24 hours. Lionel forgot everything he'd experienced. Martha quietly explained it to Lionel. They politely declined to participate any further in the search for more crystals, which Lex couldn't blame them for. God only knew what the things were capable of. Clark apologized for it all so many times that Martha ended up hugging him into silence.

"Do you think that it will open?" Clark asked Lex fearfully that evening in the Kawatche caves.

"I'd be surprised if it didn't react to the crystal's presence," Lex said, smiling smugly at Clark when the secret door opened at Clark's approach with the dark crystal.

"Know-it-all," Clark muttered, flushing a little.

"You're the one who reads at 11,000+ words a minute," Lex said, grinning. "This was just a logical extrapolation."

The black crystal fit perfectly next to the first one and they gladly left the secret room. The next couple of months were busy for both Clark and Lex. Clark was finally popular and liked for the first time in his life. Lex was busy with his business, trying to find a cure for Lionel (who had improved quite a lot after the body switch but who still wasn't out of the woods) and with determining what to do about the last crystal and Jor-El.

Lex was worried that finding the last crystal would strengthen Jor-El, so he spent tons of time with Clark interpreting every bit of ancient Kryptonian writing and legend that they could find. Clark felt that Jor-El wanted him to rule the world as a dictator. Lex wasn't so sure. He pointed to all the evidence showing that great men with powers like Clark's had been guiding and protecting Earth over the eons.

"I think you're destined to be Earth's greatest hero," Lex said, laughing at Clark's eye roll.

"You think the strangest things," Clark said, pulling Lex to him.

"I think," Lex said with a sigh, "That you've still got a week before your 18th birthday."

"What are you going to give me for my birthday?" Clark asked, pouting a little at Lex.

"You'll have to wait and see," Lex said, smirking. "Maybe just me in a ribbon."

"That would be the best present ever," Clark said, voice husky with lust.

Two days later, someone stole the manuscript with the map to the third crystal from Lex's manor. Not a single sensor went off during the theft. It was simply gone in the morning when Lex walked into his office. Lex called Clark first to see if his friend Bart had been in town.

"It's gone?" Clark asked, arriving before Lex had time to hang up.

"Yes," Lex said, gesturing to the empty display. "If Bart has gone back to his old ways, I wanted to give you a chance to talk to him."

"It wasn't Bart," Clark said, frowning. "He's still off looking for others like us. He's stopped stealing entirely."

"Let's see what the security system shows," Lex said, going to his desk and computer.

Finding the moment of the theft was easy. Seeing who or what had done it was a bit more difficult. It happened so quickly that the manuscript was simply there one instant and gone the next. Lex stepped back through the footage frame by frame. Lex and Clark both started when Lana appeared 3 frames before the theft. She gestured at 2 frames. At 1 frame light flared and then both she and the manuscript were gone.

"Countess Isobel rises again?" Lex asked, sighing with dismay.

"Maybe," Clark said a little fearfully. "But how? Why?"

"No idea," Lex said, "But I'd say that we need to track her down. Jason would be the best place to start, I think."

"Coach Teague?" Clark asked, confused. "Why him?"

"He and Lana have been … involved since Paris," Lex said, "I found out by accident at the start of the school year."

"You never told me?" Clark said, a little hurt.

"It's not my secret, Clark," Lex said, shrugging. "I didn't feel it was my place. You don't tell me everything and I wouldn't want you to. I want to marry you, not be surgically joined at the hip. Besides, with our relationship, I didn't feel I had any right to judge their relationship. We're doing the exact same thing that they are, after all."

Clark blushed, ducked his head and smiled through his eyelashes again. Lex leaned over and kissed him, heart fluttering a little. Clark so had Lex wrapped around his little finger.

"So," Lex said, "Let's track down Lana and Jason and see what they think they're up to."

Lana and Jason appeared to be at least three or four steps ahead of Lex and Clark. By the time Lex discovered the theft, Lana and Jason were on a private plane for China with the map.

"How in the world did Lana and Coach Teague afford a private jet?" Clark asked, confused.

"He's from a very rich and powerful family, Clark," Lex said, arranging for his jet to be readied as he gathered his clothes and passport. "That's Jason's mother's private jet they're using. I've had suspicions about her for a while. Shouldn't you go pack and get the other two crystals?"

"Um, I'm going?" Clark asked, surprised.

"Of course," Lex said, grinning at Clark's dumbfounded expression. "I've already got your passport. I ordered it a couple of months ago. Go tell you dad that Lana's in danger and we're off to rescue him."

"Is she in danger?" Clark asked doubtfully. "I thought she was the one in charge of this whole mess."

"The Lana we know would never have stolen the manuscript," Lex said, "Nor have convinced Jason to abandon his job or schooling to go haring off to China. Jason's mother is … odd. I suspect that she'd pulling both of their strings. Besides, we can't let someone else be hurt by the power of the crystals."

"Right," Clark said and disappeared.

Lex finished his packing and notified his family of what was going on. Lionel and Martha were worried but agreed to watch over Lex's company until they got back. Lucas teased Lex about it being an odd sort of honeymoon during their call.

"He wasn't happy," Clark said, reappearing as Lex was climbing into his helicopter, "But he agreed to let me go."

"Great," Lex said, smiling as Clark climbed in too, "We've got a ways to go to catch up with them. Strap in."

They missed Lana and Jason when they landed in China. They played catch up all through China's provinces. They nearly caught them at a river crossing once but Lana used magic to let them escaped.

"Coach looks so frightened," Clark said as the ferry slowly steamed its way back across to where Clark and Lex waited with their rental car. "I've never seen him look that afraid before."

"If I was in his shoes," Lex said, thumping the roof of their rental car angrily at the delay, "I'd be terrified. Hijacked across the world, my girlfriend is using magic and maybe has changed personalities, on a quest for something that just might make her stronger. He must really love her to go through all of this for Lana."

Clark gave Lex a strange look but didn't say anything. It was only later that Lex realized someone could have said the same thing about Lex. Clark didn't say much as they waited for the ferry and then hurried up the worst gravel road that Lex had ever seen. His scan of the map let them stay right on Lana and Jason's tails. When the reached the hiding place of the last crystal it was obvious that Lana and Jason had gotten their first.

"Their car is still here," Clark noted hopefully.

"They must be inside the caves," Lex said, frowning. "Can you see what's going on inside?"

"Um," Clark said, squinting at the mountainside, "Whoa, 10 million traps and Lana's leading Coach Teague through them."

"Think we can catch up?" Lex asked, worried.

"Sure," Clark said, picking Lex up. "I'll bet that none of the traps can react as fast as I can. We can probably get ahead of them."

"Be careful," Lex said, embarrassed to be carried like a child but mature enough not to kick up a fuss.

"Always when it's you," Clark said, giving Lex a quick kiss.

He sped through the tunnels faster than Lex could see. Lex saw a blur that might have been Lana and Jason but he wasn't sure. Then they were in the central chamber. It was a tomb of some sort, with a sarcophagus in the center of the room. The floor was elaborately tiled, though dust hid most of the tiles. The walls and ceiling were elaborately carved and painted as well. Sculptures and grave goods were set around the walls. They looked around, trying to figure out where the crystal might be hidden.

Clark suddenly groaned, staggering. He nearly fell and Lex barely kept him from going face down in the dust on the floor.

"Clark?!" Lex asked, horrified.

"L-Lex…" Clark whimpered, getting paler by the moment, "K-kryptonite…"

"Shit!" Lex scanned the room desperately, trying to find the source of the radiation killing his lover. The inner chamber had so many things in it that Lex despaired of ever finding it in time.

"I'm sorry," Jason said from the entryway, "But this is the only way for me to save Lana. Just get out of my way and you won't be hurt."

In one hand, Jason held a huge chunk of glowing Kryptonite. In the other hand he had a pistol that was aimed unwaveringly at Lex.

"This won't save Lana," Lex said, putting every ounce of confidence he had in his voice and demeanor, "It will doom her, Jason. Isobel is winning. Giving her the crystal means that she gets stronger and Lana disappears."

"You don't know that!" Jason said wildly.

"She's on your mother's side," Lex continued, knowing an advantage when he saw it. "Do you really think that anything good for your mother is good for Lana? Think Jason! Don't let fear rule your mind!"

"He's lying," Lana / Isobel purred behind Jason. "You know it isn't true. We need the crystal to get the tattoo off of me. Please, Jason. I need your help."

"You're killing me," Clark gasped, trembling in Lex's arms.

"You I don't care about," Jason growled, glaring at Clark. "You raped Lana and still want her."

"He's as gay as the day is long," Lex snapped, "And he's my lover. Clark thinks of Lana as his sister. Lana was raped by Tina, the shape shifter who took Clark's shape to commit all of her crimes. Clark never laid a finger on Lana!"

"Couldn't ~ ngh! ~ rape her if I had to…" Clark gasped, tears in his eyes. "Don't ~ Argh! ~ react to girls."

Jason bit his lip, eyes full of conflict. His hand with the gun wavered and Lex took the instant of confusion to fire his gun. The sound was like an avalanche of sound in the closed chamber of the crypt. The single shot sounded like 20 or 100 shots as it echoed and reverberated. Jason flinched but it was Lana who screamed and fell, clutching her leg.

"Lana!" Jason cried, dropping the Kryptonite and turning to her. "You didn't have to shoot her!"

"Isobel is the real threat," Lex said, stepping quickly to Jason's side and taking the Kryptonite. He sealed it back in the led box Jason had used to transport it.

"Thank god," Clark breathed, restored to himself once the Kryptonite was sealed away.

"Get them to the car," Lex said to Clark. "I'll wait here for you."

"Are you sure?" Clark asked, climbing to his feet and brushing off the dust.

"It's OK," Lex reassured him. "Lana needs a first aid kit and you're the only one who can get them through the traps in time. Go. I'll be fine."

Clark looked doubtful but did what Lex wanted. He carried Lana and Jason out. Lex had just enough time to look around and identify what he thought was the last crystal before Clark was back.

"You're OK?" Clark asked, running a hand over Lex's cheek.

"I didn't move an inch while you were gone," Lex said, chuckling and leaning into the touch. "I think that's the last crystal. Can you see if there are any other traps?"

"Um," Clark hesitated, scanning the room and the carving it was set in, "Yeah. The rock wall is set to collapse this whole place if the stone is taken. I can hold it up long enough for us to get out, I think."

"I hate the thought of destroying an ancient site," Lex said, making a face. "Let's get a closer look at that. It reminds me of the Kawatche caves somehow."

The carved face was nearly an exact match for the table in the hidden room in the Kawatche caves, down to the spot for the three stones to fit together. The only difference was that they were oriented vertically instead of horizontally.

"Maybe … if we put them together here," Clark said thoughtfully as he studied the writings and carvings, "Then it won't collapse?"

"That … seems to be what the Chinese is saying," Lex said, puzzling out the ancient Chinese characters. "If I'm interpreting this dialect right."

Lex and Clark exchanged serious looks. If this didn't work, Clark might not be able to save Lex but Lex had already made it clear that he wasn't going to let Clark do this alone. Lex pulled out the two crystals that they already had. Clark took them gingerly. He carefully set the first and then second crystals in place, holding them with his hands to keep them from falling.

At the same moment that there was a flash of light from beneath Clark's hands, Lex gasped. He felt something tear though his back and out the front of his chest where it hit Clark's back and ricocheted back into Lex's leg. He fell forward against Clark as his mind registered the hollow pop of a silenced gunshot.

"Lex!" Clark yelled, turning to catch Lex before his knees had hit the ground. One hand held the three crystals, now merged into one.

Several things happened at once, Lex noting each of them with perfect mental clarity. First, his lungs and heart stopped working. Second, Jason's mother appeared at the entrance to the tomb chamber with a handgun. The silencer was smoking. Third, Clark's eyes went red as beams erupted from them, aimed at Genevieve's gun.

Lastly and weirdest for Lex, they moved in a strange way, dropping and twisting to a side that Lex hadn't known existed. White surrounded them, with bitingly cold, driving winds and the aurora borealis overhead.

"Lex!" Clark whimpered, tossing the crystal aside to clutch Lex's hand. "Oh god! Don't die, please don't die! I can't live without you Lex!"

"Clark," Lex tried to say but there was no air in his lungs and the world was going gray, "Love you…"

"I love you too!" Clark said, tears freezing on his cheeks. "Please don't die!!!"

Lex beamed as he passed out. It was the first time that Clark had ever said 'I love you' to Lex.

Lex hadn't truly expected to wake up. He'd expected to see a white light and be reunited with his mother Lillian, with Julian. Maybe his grandparents through his father had always been convinced they'd gone 'somewhere else'.

So prying his eyes open was unexpected. There was white light, but it hurt to look at. Lex didn't think being dead would hurt this much. His whole chest ached like he'd been kicked though a wall (which hadn't happened since his first month in Excelsior). That was leaving out the sticky drying blood on his chest.

"He'll live?" Clark was saying desperately to someone. "You're sure he'll live?"

"He wakes now, Kal-El," an emotionless male voice replied calmly. "Bruising and a slight blood loss is all that remains of his injuries."

"Lex!" Clark cried, carefully lifting him out of a huge white crystal. "Thank god! Oh, thank god!"

"What happened?" Lex whispered, chest hurting too much for his normal tone of voice.

"When I tossed the crystal aside to hold you," Clark explained, tears flowing down his cheeks, "It suddenly grew into this place. Jor-El says it's my Fortress of Solitude, the place where I can learn to use my powers, learn about my people and escape when the world becomes too much to bear."

Lex looked around, feeling weak but much better than he should have. Clark's 'Fortress' was cold and alien, all crystal and light. It wasn't much warmer than the arctic outside but it was at least a little warmer.

"Interesting," Lex said a little more strongly as his body worked at healing the bruising left in his chest. "But Lana needs help and Genevieve is still dangerous."

"That station has collapsed," Jor-El said calmly. "The female inside has been killed."

"We need to go back," Clark said firmly, "Send us back now!"

"Jor-El," Lex said, putting a hand on Clark's chest to calm him, "What is Clark's, Kal-El's destiny? The little he knows of it has tormented him. He nearly committed suicide."

"I am aware of that," Jor-El said, voice showing a hint of pain. "Kal-El is to guide the human race past their weaknesses so that they do not destroy themselves as Krypton did. He shall rule the Earth and show them how to be better."

"I'm not going to rule the world!" Clark yelled, glaring at Jor-El. "I refuse!"

"There are more ways to guide and shape humanity than just becoming a political figurehead," Lex drawled, swaying a little in Clark's arms. Clark's arms tightened around Lex to warm and protect him.

"It is the most efficient way," Jor-El said.

"Not really," Lex said, leaning his head against Clark's chest. "Humans are illogical, contrary creatures. If they're forced to do something, even something good for them, they resist and go back to their old ways as soon as they can. However, if they love someone, trust and believe in someone, they'll follow his advice freely and improve on it. Clark needs to be able to lead their hears and souls, not just their bodies."

"Um, Lex?" Clark said hesitantly. He sounded and looked terrified that Lex might be siding with Jor-El.

"If you truly want him to lead Earth to a better path," Lex said, ignoring Clark and focusing on Jor-El, "then he can't rule by force."

Jor-El studied them from the image on the wall. Clark was terrified, holding Lex close. Lex was tired, in pain but perfectly calm. He knew Clark could do exactly what Jor-El wanted, if only he were allowed to find his own way. Clark would do it naturally. It was as much a part of him as the nose on his face.

"Interesting," Jor-El said. "Explain."

+++++

"Happy Birthday To You~u!" Lex sang enthusiastically with Chloe, Lois, Pete, Lana, Jason, Jonathan, Martha, Lionel and Lucas.

Clark laughed as they applauded. He winked at Lex and blew out the 18 candles on his birthday cake. Everyone cheered, Lex just as loudly as everyone else. The party had been planned for ages. Lex knew that Clark had overheard them planning it but Clark never gave any sign that he'd known. He'd acted appropriately surprised when they arrived at the farm together to find everyone waiting for them.

Convincing Clark to accept his destiny had been much harder than getting Jor-El to agree to let Clark choose how to get there. Lex still wasn't sure Clark was going to do it, a week later. Jor-El had transported them back to China once Clark had officially agreed. They'd convinced Jason that a second opening had been revealed as the room collapsed, though they'd been unable to rescue his mother.

Clark's touch removed the tattoo from Lana. Jor-El saw to that. She didn't remember anything from the last several weeks. Jason remembered Clark's speed but apparently decided that it was like Lana's tattoo. Genevieve got the blame for the site being destroyed. Lana got medical treatment for her wound and they all went home.

Lex came back to reality as he heard Martha talking to Jonathan.

"You know, you really should reupholster the furniture," Martha was saying as she cut cake and passed it out to everyone. "It's really quite old and in need of help."

"The couch is fine," Jonathan said, blushing a little. He clearly was quite taken with Martha, which Lionel picked up on from across the room.

"It's his house, Martha," Lionel said coming to her side possessively, "Don't start trying to run his life for him."

"Nonsense," Martha said, giving Clark two pieces of cake, "Have you sat on that couch? The lumps in it are not to be believed!"

Lex had to go outside to keep from laughing at Lionel's possessive behavior, Martha's complete unawareness of it and Jonathan's embarrassed interest in her. He ended up leaning against the porch rail, smiling at the evening.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Clark asked, offering Lex a piece of the chocolate-raspberry cake.

"Just amazed at how much things have changed while staying the same," Lex said, taking the cake with a smile of thanks.

"I don't see a present from you over there," Clark said quietly as he devoured his cake in big bites.

"Mmm," Lex said, eyes sparking as he slowly savored a bite of cake, "Mine is a private present."

"Finish your cake," Clark said huskily.

Lex smirked and took his time eating the piece of cake. Chloe and Pete came over and had Clark open their presents. That started a wave of present opening. Clark got twitchier and twitchier as the party continued. Nearly an hour later, Lex slipped outside, knowing Clark would follow. He wasn't wrong.

"I thought we'd never slip away," Clark said, appearing in a rush of air, "What's this about a private present?"

"Did I say that?" Lex teased, grinning as Clark swept him up in his arms. "Toll!"

"What? You need to ask for a kiss?" Clark laughed.

"That's your toll, Clark," Lex purred, putting a finger on Clark's lips to stop him, "My toll is three little words."

Clark laughed, beaming at Lex and kissing the finger happily.

"I love you, Lex Luthor," Clark said quietly, resting his forehead against Lex's.

"I love you too, Clark Ken, Kal-El and whatever other names you may someday take," Lex said, heart melting to hear Clark finally say it freely.

They kissed for a long time, a tender, sweet, loving kiss that promised everything to each other. Lex heard the door open behind them a couple of times but no one came out. He would have ignored them if they had. Clark was of age finally and they didn't have to hide their relationship anymore.

"I love that we don't have to hide anymore," Clark said happily once they finally came up for air.

"I know," Lex said, deeply content. "Your present is in my left jacket pocket, Clark."

Clark blinked and fished into Lex's pocket. He frowned at the slim leather collar and leash that he pulled out. They were tied with a purple ribbon. Lex's heart started breathing faster just looking at them. Clark didn't appear to have any idea what they meant or what Lex was giving him.

"What is this?" Clark asked confused.

"I told you that I'd give you myself for your birthday," Lex purred, getting hard at the thought of it, "So here I am. Put my collar on me and do what you will with me. I'm yours, now and forever, Clark."

"How long until this stupid party is done?" Clark groaned, pressing his suddenly very erect groin against Lex's hips.

"I think we could slip away pretty easily," Lex panted, locking his fingers in Clark's hair. "You do have your very own Fortress of Solitude, after all."

"God I love you!" Clark laughed, tucking the collar and leash back into Lex's pocket. "Let's go!"

Clark swept Lex up and used super speed to go to caves and then to the Fortress. He went so fast that Lex had a hard time breathing without tucking his face into the nook of Clark's neck. The Fortress was just as cold as last time, with the aurora overhead turning the crystals all the colors of the rainbow. Clark frowned a Lex, looking up at the display where Jor-El appeared.

"I want this place warmer," Clark said firmly. "The cold may not bother me but Lex is going to be here just as much as I am so it needs to be comfortable for a human."

"Understood," Jor-El said, sounding every so faintly amused. The temperature immediately rose to the point Lex's breath wasn't steaming.

"Also," Clark said, smiling approval, "We need a bedroom just for the two of us."

"Already prepared," Jor-El replied, lips twitching into a smile for an instant. "That was prepared the last time when you brought your mate here."

They explored, following a small glowing light to the bedroom Jor-El had made for them. Clark held Lex's hand as they walked. The bedroom was much warmer, warm enough that Lex nearly started sweating in his clothes.

"This one is skin temperature," Lex said, pulling his coat off.

"Good," Clark said, grinning. He moved super speed and the collar and leash dangled from his hand, "Because that's all you get to wear tonight."

Clark untied the ribbon and stepped over to Lex. He wrapped the collar around Lex's neck, kissing him hard as he fastened it. Lex moaned and stripped quickly, breathing harder at finally getting to be Clark's fully and willingly. They'd spent so much of their time together struggling not to cross the line where anyone could see them that it was as though Lex hadn't quite wanted it. But he always had and always would. Now he could finally give himself to Clark utterly and he never had to feel guilty again.

"I think I love this look on you," Clark murmured, hands roaming over Lex's body.

"I know I love you in charge," Lex said, voice shaking with arousal. He was so hard that it hurt.

"Good," Clark said, grinning, "Maybe I'll let you be in charge when it's your birthday."

"Mmm," Lex said, pulling at Clark's shirt, "That might be fun. Later. Now it's your turn to strip."

Clark grinned and was suddenly naked, his clothes falling to the floor. Lex groaned and let his hands roam over Clark's perfect body, down to his hugely erect cock. Clark gasped, kissing Lex forcefully before pushing him a little away.

"Not yet," Clark purred, catching Lex's hands and tying them with the leash behind his back. He pulled Lex to the bed, making him lie back, legs spread open for Clark.

"You're dripping," Clark commented before swallowing Lex whole. His hands pinned Lex in place, Clark's strength more than enough to ensure that Lex couldn't twitch without Clark allowing it.

"Oh God," Lex moaned, his eyes locked on Clark's head as he moved over Lex's cock, balls, thighs and ass.

"Going to take you until you can't move," Clark chuckled, "Give you everything you've always wanted. Do everything I always dreamed of doing."

"Please!" Lex gasped, back arching with arousal.

Clark grinned and proceeded to do exactly as he promised. He started with his tongue and mouth, making Lex come in very short order with a blow job that Lex would have paid a thousand dollars for. He didn't allow Lex to relax, switching focus to the best rimming that Lex had ever received. Clark laughed as Lex whimpered and pleaded for more. He held Lex still instead.

"Yes, please, use me, do what you want with me," Lex moaned, trembling under Clark.

"I love you so much," Clark moaned, using lube and his fingers to prepare Lex. "I love it when you beg for me."

"Love you so much," Lex gasped, still so restrained that all he could do was beg. "Can't~!"

He cried out and came again as Clark slipped three fingers into his ass. Clark laughed, grinning with pride that he'd made Lex come again so soon.

"You're going to come yourself dry at this rate," Clark chuckled. "I've got a long ways to go before I'm done, you know."

"Do it," Lex breathed, panting as Clark got ready to plunge into his body. "God yes, Clark! Want you to!"

Clark's eyes lit up and he pushed Lex's legs back and plunged into him. It didn't take long for Clark to come in Lex, filling him up.

"You shouldn't say things like that if you want me to last," Clark chuckled, kissing Lex tenderly. He didn't pull out. "God you feel so good."

"You, too," Lex said, wrists starting to ache a little. "Can you let my wrists loose? They're starting to hurt."

"Nope," Clark said, pulling out to flip Lex over and plunge back into him from behind, "Not done yet."

"Fuck yes!"

Clark took Lex from behind, then on his side, then standing, then slowly and tenderly held him down and took him for what seemed like forever. The bed got soaked with sweat and the Fortress echoed with their cries.

"I can't…" Lex moaned finally, his whole body aching, "Can't do any more."

"Me either," Clark sighed, stroking Lex's stomach tenderly, "God, no one has ever kept up with me like that before. I actually ache, Lex."

"Heh!" Lex chuckled tiredly. "Glad it's not just me. I wonder if Jor-El had something to do with it?"

"We can ask in the morning," Clark said sleepily. "You're all mine tonight."

"Tonight and forever," Lex promised, curling up around Clark.

"Like that thought," Clark whispered, "Maybe you did break my curse after all."

"It's not a curse," Lex said, playing with the wet curls at the nape of Clark's neck. "It's a blessing. You're special and just needed to find the person who matched you."

Clark smiled, laying his head against Lex's where it rested on his shoulder. His breathing evened out as he fell asleep. Lex looked around their private bedroom and smiled. Whether Jor-El had meddled in Lex or not, Clark belonged to Lex now and forever and vice versa. He fell asleep smiling happily. Let the world wait for tomorrow. Tonight was theirs alone.


End file.
